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Top seed P V Sindhu to spearhead Indian challenge

Entering the tournament as the top seed in the women’s singles, rising shuttler P V Sindhu will spearhead the Indian challenge at the Malaysia Grand Prix Gold 2013, starting in Kuala Lumpur.

Sindhu, ranked 15th in the world, will face Chen Jiayuan of Singapore in the opening round of the tournament to be played from April 30 to May 4.

Other Indians in the women’s main draw are P C Thulasi, Arundhati Pantawane and Tanvi Lad, while Rituparna Das and G Ruthvika Shivani will feature in the qualifying round.

In the men’s singles, India would be represented by H S Prannoy, R M V Gurusaidutt, Sameer Verma, Abhimanyu Singh, Oscar Bansal and K Srikanth. Prannoy, who defeated former World No. 1 Taufik Hidayat in the second round of the just-concluded India Open before going down to current no. 1 ranked shuttler Lee Chong Wei in the quarterfinals, has got a walk over in the first round at Malaysia.

While Gurusaidutt, who lost in quarterfinals of the Indian Open, has been seeded eleventh in the men’s singles of the USD 120,000 competition. He will take on Chao Huang of Singapore in the first round. In the other opening round matches, Sameer will meet Wei Jian Ai of Malaysia, while Abhimanyu would face Yan Kit Chan of Hong Kong.

Bansal and Srikanth will take on Beryno Jiann Tze Wong and Sung Min Park, respectively. The combination of S Sanjeeth and Jagadish Yadav will play in the men’s doubles main draw, while D Guru Prasad and Vineeth Manuel will play in the qualifying round.


JWALA LIKELY TO GET DOUBLES PARTNER


India shuttler Jwala Gutta on said that she is likely to have a new mixed doubles partner in Manu Atri from the next tournament. ‘I have already given a letter and from the next tournament our (Jwala and Manu Atri’s) entry will be sent and we will start playing,’ Jwala said. Jwala and V Diju represented India in mixed doubles category for a long time. The duo had bowed out in the second round of the mixed doubles event at the just-concluded India Open Super Series badminton tournament. Jwala has a new partner Prajakta Sawant in women’s doubles category also. They lost in the first round itself but Jwala said that it would take them some time before they start producing results. ‘I have just started playing (with Prajakta). This was my first tournament and I think I played well.’
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